Oops, I just vomited in my mouth watching the video that Marshall Daigre posted on his blog Saturday morning. Sorry about that.

Marshall got me thinking again about this whole business about being 'green' -- not so much in regards to whether or not global warming is a plausible theory, because it's not. Rather, I was ruminating on the motives behind those who promote it, particularly those in Washington D.C.

I used to wonder why the liberal left catered so much to the environmentalist lobby. After all, it seems rather silly to let such an obnoxious and hysterical minority single-handedly dictate such a massive portion of their agenda. But the more I see what's going on in Washington these days the more I realize that the liberal left doesn't cater to the environmentalist wackos because they care so much about saving the planet. Instead, I believe that they embrace the 'cause' because of it's ability for them to assume more control of people's lives.

Sure, there are countless droves of morons who swallow everything they hear from the media and actually believe that mankind is somehow responsible for climate change. And sure, Al Gore may just be stupid enough to believe the stuff he says, but for the liberal leadership that champions the environmental cause it has nothing to do with saving the planet. You see, the only benefit that politicians see in being 'green' is political. For example, if they can convince enough people that your SUV is destroying the world, then they can convince people to let them tax you for owning it. Furthermore, they can generate doom-and-gloom scenarios in order to scare the masses into voting for them as the only ones who care about the world and are able to fix it.

Don't believe me? Look at what Congress and the Magnificent One are doing in Washington these days. They are making policy decisions based on fallacious science and propaganda, not because they actually believe in global warming (although some probably do), but because they can use it to generate more tax revenues. The current cap and trade proposals are just one example of how it all works. The bottom line is this: Convince enough people into believing that we're destroying the world with carbon emissions and you can pass ANY legislation that you want in the guise of saving the planet -- regardless of its effectiveness as a solution or its damage to the economy, the free market, or well-being of the private sector. After all, in today's socialist climate, the private sector is evil. Those rich white guys flying around in their private jets at the expense of the health of the ozone layer deserve to be punished, and their hard-earned wealth really belongs to every else but them, right?

This same principle applies in other areas too -- such as the fight against those evil tobacco companies, the so-called 'war on poverty,' affirmative action, hate crime legislation, or any other of the countless policies that have at their core a self-centered political agenda. Scare/anger/disenfranchise enough people, and they will give you that much more control of their lives and the lives of everyone else.

So it appears that the ultimate benefit of being green, at least for our beloved Washington bureaucrats, is the green. Ignore the truth. Ignore the consequences. All that matters is control. That alone is what drives the left.

Labels: politics